1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an output system, an image processing apparatus, and an output method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional public printing services are known in which users operate a terminal to use a printing device installed in a public place to execute printing. In such public printing services, a prepaid system and a credit card transaction system are developed for a method for charging printing fees.
With the prepaid system, users can perform printing within a limitation of the fee the user has preliminarily paid at a shop, for example. With the credit card transaction system, the credit card number is used for transaction.
The technologies relating to these public printing services are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-167694, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-134046, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-242239, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-242240.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-134046 discloses an example of a public printing system with a prepaid system. This public printing system includes a charge information processing apparatus, an information processing apparatus, and a printing device. The charge information processing apparatus manages the number of output for printing available according to the amount preliminarily paid. The information processing apparatus generates printing data that can be output from the printing device and transmits the printing data. The printing device executes printing output.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-134046 further discloses that when the information processing apparatus transmits printing data to the printing device, the information processing apparatus adds a job ID to the printing data. When the user inputs the job ID in the printing device, the printing data corresponding to the job ID is printed. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-134046 also discloses that, for print execution, a user inputs authentication key that has been notified when the user pays a fee so that the printing device accesses the charge information processing apparatus according to the authentication key. The printing device checks the remaining printable number of times and executes the printing if the printable number of times remains.
In addition to the examples above, the public printing services with a prepaid system include a publicly known system in which a print processing program with information of the fee already paid is distributed.
Furthermore, as a system for ordering printing from a portable terminal to a printer, a technology referred to as driverless printing is also publicly known. With the driverless printing, a user can order printing without installing a driver specific to the printer, which is provided by a printer vendor.
In the public printing services describes above, the printing device has to receive a printing request from various users (or apparatuses). Upon receipt of the requests or execution of printing, it is important to determine whether the printing device can comply with the request, that is to say, whether the user is authorized to use the apparatus.
Various methods for such authentication are disclosed in the patent documents described above, for example, and are publicly known. In the conventional methods, however, it is assumed that a driver specific to the printing device (the driver with a specific function to work with the printing device) is installed in the terminal that requests the printing device of printing. To use the printing device, the driver needs to be installed in the terminal in advance, thereby bothering the user with this installing operation.
Also from the viewpoint of a vendor of the printing device, the vendor needs to provide a system for distributing the driver, which increases the cost of the printing device. Even though the printing device employs the above-described driverless printing, which eliminates distribution of a specific driver, the terminal cannot always execute the processing intended by the vendor through the driverless printing. In addition, conventionally known technologies have not yet provided a method to sufficiently perform user authentication when printing is ordered from the terminal through driverless printing.
Furthermore, conventional methods request users to input certain information in the printing device for user authentication. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-134046 described above discloses a technology in which a user needs to input a job ID and an authentication key in the printing device to enable the printing device to execute printing.
This input provides an advantageous effect to prevent a printout from being taken away by persons other than the user that has requested the printing. However, users sometimes order printing in the immediate vicinity of the printing device, that is, users need not to worry that the printouts will be taken away. In such a case, if users are required to always input information for authentication, the operability of the printing device decreases.
The problems described above also occur if the request by the user through the terminal is the output other than printing, e.g., display or projection of information. In other words, the same problems occur if the apparatus is a display device or a projector rather than a printing device.
Therefore, there is a need to enable a user to authenticate the user itself by operating the terminal in a simple manner when using an output device.